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Only one in every 300 bottles of wine comes from New Zealand yet we punch above our weight. We are a small, premium industry with highly acclaimed and sought after wines. Although renown for our benchmark Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand is gaining recognition for other varieties such as Pinot Noir, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah. Throughout May, 30 of Chicago's best restaurants will showcase New Zealand Wines by offering selections by the glass, special menu pairings and flights of various varietals. You'll also have the opportunity to attend wine dinners for a more expansive experience, and because so many different cuisines are represented among these restaurants, you will see just how beautifully New Zealand wine pairs with a myriad flavors. Take advantage of the opportunity to experience the intense and diverse flavours of New Zealand wine, perfect to complement a range of variety of meals. Discover new wines, try new varietals and enjoy the sensation…in every glass of New Zealand Wine is a world of pure discovery.
New Zealand has long been famed for its stunning, unspoiled landscape. Equal to the international acclaim for its beauty is that for its fine wine. Climate, geography and human skill have combined to produce highly distinctive, premium quality wines.
SAUVIGNON BLANC Food Matches: Seafood – oysters, smoked salmon/trout, shellfish. Also try salads without too much vinegar or green herb flavored foods.
CHARDONNAY Food Matches: Fish and lighter meats – poached salmon, roast chicken, veal or rabbit with cream/cheese/lemon flavored sauces.
AROMATIC VARIETIES Food Matches: Riesling: Salads, seafood and chicken, mild Asian dishes. Pinot Gris: Pastas, calamari, scallops, poached fish, shellfish. Gewürztraminer: Mild curries and chillies, spicy Asian.
SPARKLING WINE Food Matches: Excellent aperitif as well as accompaniments to a range of dishes – salty and deep fried foods along with lightly spiced Asian dishes, seafood and also strawberries.
PINOT NOIR Food Matches: Lighter styles with salmon, quail, turkey and veal. Fuller styles with lamb, duck, venison, roast chicken.
MERLOT & CABERNET SAUVIGNON Food Matches: Cabernet Sauvignon or dominated blends – red meats, winter casseroles, venison, game strong-flavored cheeses, pizzas. Merlot or dominated blends – lamb, venison, wild pork, liver, veal, game and sauces with black olives/herbs
SMALL, YET PERFECTLY FORMED The New Zealand wine industry is a quality driven niche player. Within a relatively short time, our wines have acquired a reputation that is the envy of much larger wine producing countries. International critics rate New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc as the world’s best, and the growing acclaim for New Zealand Chardonnay, Cabernet Merlot blends and Pinot Noir is helping to further secure New Zealand’s position as a producer of premium wines.
TEMPERATE MARITIME CLIMATE As a nation of islands, New Zealand benefits from the temperature modulating effect of the sea. The extremes of heat and cold experienced by landlocked, continental countries simply don’t apply. New Zealand also enjoys long, dry autumns which allow slow ripening – our grapes develop intensity as well as good acid structure. This balance between fruit and acidity is one of the key differentiators of New Zealand wine, and an important reason for why they work so well with food.
DIVERSE REGIONS New Zealand’s wine growing regions are found between latitudes of 34 to 47 degrees south and cover a distance of 1,000 miles (1,600 Kms) from most northern to most southern. Grapes are grown in a wide range of local climatic conditions and soil types, so highly distinctive regional flavours have emerged. The northern hemisphere equivalent would run from Portland, Oregon to Fresno, California.
SAUVIGNON BLANC Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and in particular Marlborough, has been acclaimed throughout the world as the definitive benchmark style for the varietal. Nowhere else does Sauvignon Blanc yield such pungently aromatic and explosively flavored wine. Flavours and aromas range from cut-grass and green capsicum (pepper) to gooseberry, tomato stalk, melon, nectarine and passion fruit.
CHARDONNAY New Zealand Chardonnays are hallmarked by a mouth-filling concentration of citrus and tropical fruit flavours, finely balanced by crisp, authoritative acidity and perfectly rounded with just the right amount of oak. The varied regional conditions combined with winemaker passion and innovation means that from this hallmark, a myriad of ever-evolving styles are emerging to suit many palates and most cuisines. Chardonnays from cooler regions tend to exhibit crisp, citrus and apple flavours, whereas in warmer regions the flavours encompass melon, pineapple and occasionally peach and nectarine.
AROMATIC VARIETIES RIESLING, GEWÜRZTRAMINER & PINOT GRIS New Zealand has an ideal climate for the production of aromatic wines and praise has been mounting in recent years for the increasing number of vibrant, world-class and regionally distinctive examples of New Zealand Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris. If New Zealand is well known for making pungent, vibrant, fruity wines, then aromatic styles are perhaps the best advertisement of that fact.
RIESLING New Zealand Riesling styles vary from bone dry to lush sweet, and everything in between. Typical aromas and flavours include apple, citrus, lemon and tropical fruit when young, through to toasted honey and sometimes kerosene with age.
PINOT GRIS New Zealand styles of Pinot Gris are very versatile and can range from light-bodied, fruit-driven wines to rich, mouth-filling ones. Aromas and flavours include apples, pears, honeysuckle, spice, breadcrust through to riper stonefruit and apricot.
GEWÜRZTRAMINER Gewürztraminer from New Zealand can range from the fat, full bodied to almost oily models to the steely and minerally. Typical aromas include rose petals, lychees, spices (cinnamon, ginger).
PINOT NOIR With its temperate, sunny climate and passionate winemakers, New Zealand is one of the few countries to flourish with the fickle Pinot Noir grape. Akin to the ‘old World’ in their fine structure and elegance, New Zealand Pinot Noirs deliver the excitement of the ‘new world’ with the pure power and intensity of their fruit expression. Typical flavours and aromas include strawberries, raspberries, cherries, spice. With age, they develop mushroom and earth characters.
MERLOT, CABERNET SAUVIGNON BLENDS & SYRAH Whilst excellent single variety wines are available, the main focus for New Zealand reds (excluding Pinot Noir) are rich, elegant blends, which combine the finesse and structure of Cabernet Sauvignon with the vibrant, ripe fruit of Merlot.
Increasingly the blends are Merlot-predominant due to the ideal temperate climate conditions in the northern part of the country which allow this early ripening variety to flourish.
Complex, floral and bright spicy flavours with elegant texture also ensure that New Zealand Syrah shines alongside the blends.
Combining ‘New World’ fruit with ‘Old World’ structure, these wines are approachable when young, but capable of ageing with the best.
Merlot flavours & aromas include rich, plumy fruit, sweet dark cherries, and chocolate aromas
Cabernet Sauvignon display blackcurrant, black cherry, blackberry, cedar wood and oak characteristics, with some having savoury, earthy, cigar box flavours.
Syrah is a rising star yielding elegant wines with typical aromas and flavours including plum, white and black pepper, coffee, tobacco and also rich flavours of black fruit and sometime chocolate.
NEW ZEALAND WINE CONTACT INFORMATION
New Zealand Winegrowers 438 Avila San Francisco, CA 94123
Phone: 415 567 5511 Email: nzwine@earthlink.net
For information on New Zealand Wine events: www.nzwine-eventsusa.com For information on the New Zealand Wine industry: www.nzwine.com